Cut into the egg.Anticipation becomesdisappointment. Yolk,an overcooked hockey puck.Does not coat otheringredients on the plate.Was the special a mistake?

Citrus in sauce addsway too much acidity.Steak is drowned out byraspberry, overpowers.Potatoes are nice.Laced with rosemary, lemon.Crispy and fluffy.

The Sunny Side Cafe - Service is awesome, the portions are big, and the food is a decent value for Berkeley. They probably overreached on the special. The flavors clashed, but the overall dish was still tasty. However, Eggs Benedict is supposed to be one of the Sunny Side Cafe's signature items and my order was only one the two line cooks were working on. In addition to the hard boiled eggs, the muffins were under toasted and soggy because the eggs weren't drained properly. I'm not sure that was their best effort.

What is a Choka (長歌)?

A choka is a form of waka (和歌) or Japanese poetry. Like the more commonly known haiku, choka are composed lines with 5 or 7 syllables (onji) arranged in a pattern. Each stanza has two couplets with a first line of 5 onji and a second line of 7 onji. The stanza is completed with a katuata of three lines. The first line in the katuata must be 5 onji and the second line must be 7. However the third line can be either 5 or 7 onji. So, each seven line stanza of a choka can have a series of 5-7-5-7-5-7-5 onji, or a series of 5-7-5-7-5-7-7 onji.

For example, this stanza from my choka is in the 5-7-5-7-5-7-7 onji pattern.

Cat's the poet, not me. However, I think choka are a lot of fun, even if you end up looking a bit silly counting out syllables on your fingers. I cheated a bit and used How Many Syllables.com. There's also a project called Choka On It dedicated to writing the world's longest choka by crowdsourcing it. Try contributing a couplet!

A real waka expert would probably have a field day with my choka, to which I reply with this haiku:You pretentious prick.Giving you the finger whilethunder roars outside.